BlackBerry Bold 9790 review

In a nutshell:The Bold 9790 is a touchscreen phone driven by the BlackBerry 7 OS with the added benefit of a full QWERTY keyboard. The Bold 9790 is a competent business phone except for the fact that its battery life is poor.

We do enjoy a good BlackBerry at S21, and the BlackBerry Bold 9790 is a lovely phone in many ways. The Bold series has always been bomb-proof (not literally: do not use your phone anywhere near explosive materials) and seriously-minded, but the 9790 adds the finesse of the touchscreen user interface first seen on the Bold 9900.

"Prepare to be stunned," proclaims RIM's marketing material, and for once that's not an understatement, for the 9790 is one of the most beautiful pieces of hardware we've laid our paws on. It's much thinner than the Bolds of old, and lighter too, but still retains its premium look and feel. The keyboard and screen are the same size as the Bold 9780, although there's a slight bevelling to the edge of the casing, resulting in a curvature of the keys at the far left and right. An optical trackpad sits in the centre below the screen, enabling rapid scrolling through menus.

The 9790 runs the BlackBerry 7 operating system, in common with the Bold 9900, enabling full touchscreen control in parallel with the physical QWERTY keyboard for fast and accurate typing. It's an unbeatable combination, especially for the core BlackBerry activities of email, text, BBM and social networking. Users of older Bold models will appreciate the touchscreen controls and the greater integration of the various messaging platforms.

The display is much higher resolution than that seen on earlier models. The physical screen size is the same, at 2.5 inches, and this does limit what the 9790 can do when compared with smartphones from other manufacturers.

The processor is a new faster 1GHz model with 768MB of RAM. By modern standard this is slow. Whilst it enables the user interface to respond nearly instantly to touches and key presses, there's a lack of grunt for running apps. There's a decent amount of memory available, with 8GB of built-in memory, plus the option to add memory cards of up to 32GB, for a grand total of 40GB.

Connectivity is outstanding, with all bases covered. As well as 3G HSDPA and Wi-Fi for fast data transfer, the 9790 is a quadband phone, so it will work in any country. It has Bluetooth for wireless connections, plus USB and a 3.5mm headset port. And there's also Near-Field Communication, or NFC, which doesn't do much at present but will in the future. GPS with BlackBerry Maps is also present.

The media capabilities of the 9790 are relatively poor. The 5 megapixel camera has autofocus and an LED flash and does a decent job of capturing images in fair to good lighting. The VGA video recording isn't up to much , but it's sufficient for a business phone. Audio and video playback are good, with excellent sound quality via the 3.5mm headphone jack, and smooth video on the high-resolution screen.

There's one deadly problem with the 9790 though - battery life. The touchscreen and faster processor use up more power than older Bold models, yet RIM made the stupid decision of reducing the battery size too. This is presumably to enable the ultraslim design. But the result is a significant reduction in battery life compared with the Bold 9780. Careful users who switch off features like GPS, Bluetooth, etc when not in use and who adjust the screen brightness will get 2-3 days between charges. But heavy users may struggle to make it through a single day. That's not good enough for a business workhorse phone.

When you add the poor battery life to the generally outdated capabilities of the phone, the 9790 begins to look like a poor choice now. We'd prefer the Bold 9900, although this too suffers from poor battery life. The lower spec Curve 9320 does at least offer a decent battery.

BlackBerry Bold 9790 user reviews

Love this product? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the product that's best for them. Please do not review this product if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

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Average rating from 23 reviews:

Reviewed by Ebrahim
from South Africa
on 30th Nov 2014
This phone is awesome, it had it's downfalls. I really like the sound
quality, I wonder what audio chip this device uses. It definitely can
be compared to the 'Wolfson' audio chips used in 'Ipods'Rating:

Reviewed by mathew tj
from India
on 24th Nov 2014
Battery life is poor.Rating:

Reviewed by 9790 user
from south Africa
on 1st Apr 2014
Not impressed with this model BB ,Rating:

Reviewed by Karim
from UK
on 9th Dec 2013
Absoloutely appalling battery life. After 8 months i can no longer use
the phone, my screen lights up with a picture of a battery with a red
cross across it. Time to move on to bigger and better things ... Apple
or SamsungRating:

Reviewed by miranda
from South Africa
on 28th Sep 2013
I just can't use touch screen when I'm unswering a call while I want
to use Rating:

Reviewed by Billy from UK on 27th May 2013
Love this phone, has everything I need. Downloaded google maps as the
blackberry maps is not good. Battery life was not good until I removed
bb messenger and blackberry maps, it then improved a lot.Rating:

Reviewed by bracey from hull on 25th Feb 2013
this phone is the best bb out i updated the OS and bat life is good
last 21 hours with very heavy use so well enough to get me through day.
I had bbs since first bold this is small, light,stylish and best BB
out

oh and agree as good as ryan giggsRating:

Reviewed by russ from manchester on 11th Feb 2013
this bold is like ryan giggs a true pro in all areasRating:

Reviewed by Lindsay from UK on 27th Jun 2012
Became increasingly exasperated with (typing on) a Torch 9860 so switched
back to a phone with a (dear, familiar) physical keyboard. Having now
had the phone for a fortnight I feel back in charge of my life being
able to communicate on the move effortlessly by email and text not forgetting
bbm. Also it's far less of a brick than a 9860 - so small and light
I find myself regularly tapping my shirt pocket to reassure myself I
have it with me. It may not be trendy but it delivers what it offers
on the tin with consummate ease!Rating:

Reviewed by Cheryl from UK on 15th Jun 2012
Ok, traded in my iphone for the 9790, was good at first, camera is brilliant
BUT then started having problems, battery not very good but not REALLY
a problem as I'll charge it overnight, calls keep failing when I try
& phone someone, when texting it keeps going onto previous texts & bringing
up emoticons, sometimes won't even send texts, nipping into town tomorrow
to exchange for a different phone :(Rating:

Reviewed by 1981clyde from UK on 11th Jun 2012
Had my Bold 9900 stolen and with the insurance payout choose this model
as it was £90 less - really pleased, much better size and just as powerfulRating:

Reviewed by Lindsay from UK on 11th Jun 2012
Not a review ... more an observation ... I think you'll find you have
the number of pixels on the screen wrong ... sure its 480 x 360 and
not 640 x 480.

Best regardsRating:

Reply by S21 from UK on 11th Jun 2012
Thanks Lindsay. You're right, it was a mis-print. Spec corrected now!

Reviewed by CM from UK on 16th May 2012
The battery issue is similar to that of so many other phones - use all
the capability and it drains it out - or you get something of significant
size. It's a compromise, so I knew what to expect and the phone has
been brilliant. The Qwerty keyboard makes long e-mails a joy and the
sound quality of calls and reception performance is excellent. So as
a business tool superb and I work on the principle it has the capability
to do all the clever stuff which is great to know.
So if you spend your day streaming U-tube get another phone or more
realistically a pad of some sort - but if you need a faithful communication
device (that can also stream if you have a sudden need) then I would
struggle to imagine anything better!Rating:

Reviewed by RJ from UK on 13th Apr 2012
Caveat: I'm a past Blackberry convert - I also have a company iPhone
but choose to divert all call and mail traffic to my personal Blackberry
rather than the other way around - I just believe there's no substitute
for the speed and accuracy of that qwerty keypad (and the speed dialling
functionality it provides).

Needing to replace my Bold 9700 - and as Orange don't offer the 9810
(which has a rather compromised keypad layout anyway) I opted for a
9790. Sadly I've been very disappointed with many aspects of the phone's
performance, though to be fair there are some great features which have
rescued the 3-tick review. Here goes;
The good... The camera - easy to use and effective, taking fine "snaps".
The keyboard - in my experience this is the best qwerty keypad I've
ever used on a handheld - feel, key spacing and shape are superb - and
yes, I've got fairly big hands... Social media is easy to access too.
Browser performance is far, far faster than my 9700, though I miss the
ability to adjust detail browser settings. The phone is still wonderfully
compact too of course - it's one of the few true "shirt pocket" phones
out there, a key reason I chose not to buy a 9900.
The surprisingly OK... the touchscreen/trackpad combination works. Yes
the touchscreen is small, but it is better than none, if not quite as
versatile as my iPhone for games. The audio player is good too - just
not with the awful standard headset (I guess Blackberry are cutting
cost heavily right now to survive their business transformation - the
headphones seem to be a victim of this).
The bad... The battery. The battery. The battery. My 9700 has superb
battery life - it can run for four days between charges with light use
and I've never, ever had to rely on same day recharging (even though
that phone is now 2+1/2 years old). The 9790 battery actually ran out
at 4pm early in the phone's life. OK, I was browsing a fair bit, but
nothing that would have worried my old phone. If Blackberry do go bust,
I'd wager gurus will look back and declare it was because they lost
sight of the things which made them special - and battery life was certainly
one of these (what would you rather have; 50% more battery life, or
a phone that's 0.5mm thinner?). Other "bads"? The built-in UMA (wi-fi
call routing, sometimes called "signal boost") doesn't work reliably,
with voice calls intermittently warbling incoherently - this is annoying,
I've lost a couple of business calls with this. Orange have advised
me to update my router's firmware(!) and in fairness I've not had a
chance to do this yet, so I'll try and update my review if this fixes
the problem. Having said that, as the router still makes calls without
any problem from my old 9700, I consider this rather poor. Finally,
the phone doesn't feel as robust as my 9700 either - it has plastic
screen too, which isn't best for touchscreen durability.
Would I buy again? Just - as much because buying into a new fixed term
deal - with this phone - was cheaper for me than staying on a rolling
monthly contract. Though if someone had promised me that a Blackberry
10 QWERTY phone would definitely be here in the autumn, I'd have probably
waited.Rating:

Reviewed by Shedder101 from UK on 6th Apr 2012
My first BB and i love it, simple to set up does what it says on the
tin. If you want to surf the web get a PC, who wants to view the world
on such a small screen. Ask your self what you want from a TELEPHONE,
calls and messages, fantastic call quality, holds on to signal when
others fail email, text and BBM. As for battery life i am getting 2
days use but i do use the auto shutdown option, this shuts down the
phone form X to X (X= time you set) fantastic option so no interruption
with junk through the night. Media 5 star camera 4star Rating:

Reviewed by danny hill from westmidlands on 4th
Apr 2012
cant believe i am going to say this but this is the first every blackberry
that does not freeze at all. the battery life is great. i use the phone
alot about 5hours and i still have half a better left. the touch screen
is orsome. it makes it a lot easier to navigate aroung the device and
blackberry have still keep the trackpad which i like. i also like about
the phone is that the trackpad lights up so when your in the dark you
know where it is. it is smaller than the blackberry bold 9900 which
i like because i like small phones. so if you want to experience a blackberry
get the blackberry bold 9790. you wont be disopointed.Rating:

Reviewed by Paul from UK on 3rd Apr 2012
Had the 9790 for two weeks now, was a committed Nokia user but now I
found out what I have been missing. As a tool for work and organising
it's outstanding, simple functionality done brilliantly. Others will
complain about battery life but I am getting two days plus out of the
9790. If you want a toy for social networking and apps then this is
not for you, you have to be realistic it's primary job is to functon
as a phone which it does very very well. The push email is faultless
and the excellent BBM comes in very handy.Peace of mind comes with Blackberry
Protect for serious users and the ability to Bridge with a playbook
is extremely useful. Not to be underestimated, it's a serious piece
of kit.Rating:

Reviewed by Gill from UK on 26th Mar 2012
The battery life is terrible on this BB.Rating:

Reviewed by david from UK on 21st Mar 2012
Worst phone ever!! Had so many problems, they gave me a new phone, still
problems. Lost all my text msg's again recently!! This company will
go bankrupt soon.Rating:

Reviewed by Bertie from London UK on 28th Feb
2012
Upgraded from a 9780 and am a little disapointed.
Yes it looks ok.
yes it slimmer.
yes its lighter and wow its got a touch screen that as a confirmed blackberry
user I sort of find myself not using because unlike on full touchscreen
phones its pretty pointless.
But and this is the real downside the stupid battery. If you like the
odd Tweet or actually like to use your phone forget it. Have turned
everything down or off installed battery boost but it still doesn't
make it through the day, such a shame coz this could have been a realy
good phone and now its not. Have gone back to my old phone because we
all need a phone to last all day without having to charge it mid afternoon.....Drops
2 stars for poop battery.....Rating:

Reviewed by Robin from N.IRELAND on 8th Feb 2012
Got the 9790 last saturday, after alot of decision making weather to
go for a HTC or Blackberry... I have to say i am over the moon with
it... Great for the usual things on a smart phone like emails going
online and all the social sites.. connection is great weather wifi or
3g. The touch screen works very well as does the keyboard.. I have found
the battery life to be ok, i'm getting more than a day, so i think thats
ok for a smart phone. The phone looks fantastic, and i have found the
camera to be as good as i expected..So overall i'm delighted with the
phone.Rating:

Reviewed by mack from LA on 14th Jan 2012
this is an OK fone it has bright colours n looks cool, i love the bbm
it is amazin but as i said its not the best fone it snap easily all
bb do dat Rating: